On the flip side, if there's dry, fluffy snow (like the 15:1 ratio), it might not melt as quickly, even if there's a lot of it, and once it does there isn't a lot of water to deal with.

On the flip side, if there's dry, fluffy snow (like the 15:1 ratio), it might not melt as quickly, even if there's a lot of it, and once it does there isn't a lot of water to deal with.

That means for every 10 inches of snow that falls, that is equal to one inch of liquid water or rain. That is a good general rule to follow, but it is actually a little more complicated than that.

Here’s a quick example. Let’s take the same hypothetical snow total of 3.2 inches of snow. At a twelve-to-one ratio, that equates to a water equivalent of just over a quarter inch.

This ratio is the amount of snow that is produced by one inch of water. The average ratio seen is 10:1 which means for every ten inches of snow that falls, there would be a one-inch liquid equivalent.

At 25 degrees, it'll be more like a 15 to 1 ratio. meaning 1" of water would equal 15" of snow.You can have snow to water ratios of 30 to 1 when the snow falls at a temperature of about 10 degrees ...

The ice crystals that make up snow take up more volume than liquid water, but exactly what that ratio is in any given snowstorm can involve a number of factors. One old rule of thumb is 10-to-1 ...

Wet plastery snow falling in air near freezing may have a water ratio of 6:1. On the other hand, in dry, powdery snow in very cold air, the ratio may be as high as 30:1.

The snow from this storm, which swept in from the South carrying warm moisture, was relatively wet and heavy. There was nearly an inch of water in the snow, for a snow-to-water ratio of about 10 to 1.